[THIS work was written by order of the Emperor Akbar, and
its author bestowed upon it the title Tuhfat-i Akbar Sháhí; but
Ahmad Yádgár, who wrote the Táríkh-i Salátín-i Afághana a few
years afterwards, calls it the Táríkh-i Sher Sháhí, and so it con­tinues
to be known.*
The author of the work was 'Abbás Khán,
son of Shaikh 'Alí Sarwání. Nothing is known of the author
beyond the little which he incidentally mentions in the course
of the work, that he was connected by marriage with the family
of Sher Sháh, and so had peculiar sources of information as to
the life and character of that adventurous and successful chief,
whose craft and valour won a crown. 'Abbás Khán certainly
had high connexions, but he attained no great distinction in
his own person. He received the command of 500 horse from
the Emperor Akbar, of which, by the intrigues of his enemies,
he was soon deprived. This so wounded his feelings that he
resolved to “return to the country of his fathers.” But the
Khán Khánán took compassion on him, and being informed of
his own history and that of his ancestors, procured for him “a
clear 200 rupees a month,” which he appears to have lost soon
afterwards.

The work is valuable as the production of a contemporary
writer who had excellent means of obtaining information, although
its literary merit is but slender. It is a biography, not a history,
and its method is one that requires a vigorous and versatile
writer. The various actors are made to describe the scenes
which occurred under their observation, and to set forth their
own views and opinions. This is all done in a very prolix and
tedious style, without the slightest diversity of character or
expression. All the persons concerned talk in the same strain;
and their ostensible speeches, and the ordinary narrative of
the author, are alike verbose and wearisome. In the following
Extracts the expressions of opinion and sentiment have been
greatly curtailed, but the narrative and records of events have
been left intact. The dates given are few and far between, but
there is nothing peculiar in this, as all other works of the period
are similarly deficient.

Sher Sháh has obtained a great reputation for his administra­tive
ability, and this work has fortunately preserved the means
of forming a judgment of his character and talents. Upon this
part of the work Sir H. Elliot says: “The conclusion of the
work containing the regulations is very valuable, though over­laudatory.
The account which he gives of what the governors
did and did not, shows a fearful state of existing anarchy. Much
of this matter is also given in the Wáki'át-i Mushtákí.”

Copies of the work vary very much, and, in some, long passages
are omitted. Sir H. Elliot's own copy has been considerably
abbreviated, but judgment has not always been shown in the
work of excision. Sir H. Elliot is, no doubt, right in remark­ing
“that the most long-winded probably best represent the
original.” The whole of the translation which follows is the
work of Mr. E. C. Bayley, B.C.S., who had three MSS. to
work upon, but he appears to have afterwards received and used
a fourth copy, “fuller and better, which probably belonged to
the Nawáb of Tonk.” The Editor has had at his command
Sir H. Elliot's MS., and a better copy procured by General
Cunningham.

Subsequent writers upon this period of history made great
use of this work. Ahmad Yádgár and Ni'amatu-llah acknow­ledge
their obligations in the Táríkh-i Salátín-i Afághana, and in
the Makhzan-i Afghání translated by Dorn. It has come down
to us in an incomplete state, for the second chapter, containing
the history of Islam Khán, and the third, containing the history
of the princes descended from Sher Sháh, are not contained in the
known MSS.; but it seems tolerably certain that they were
really written. Ni'amatu-llah (Dorn, 151) quotes our author for
an anecdote of Islam Khán which is not contained in the first
chapter of the work; and Sir H. Elliot thinks that “the pro­siness
of the speeches in Dorn seems to render it highly probable
that 'Abbás Sarwání is the author of them.”

This “first chapter was translated into Urdú by one Mazhar
'Alí Khán, at the request of Captain James Mowatt or Mouat,
and in the preface the Marquis of Wellesley and Lord Corn­wallis
are praised. The translation, which has the title of
Táríkh-i Sher Sháhí, is easy and flowing.”*
M. Garcin de
Tassy*
says that a translation into Urdú was made by Mirza
Lutf 'Alí, of Dehlí, in 1805, and he adds, “Il semble, d'après
une note de M. Shakespear que cet ouvrage a été traduit en
Anglais,” but of this English translation nothing more is known.
There is probably some mistake about the name of the Urdú
translator, for it is not likely there are two translations. The
date 1805 is just the time when the Marquis of Wellesley and
Lord Cornwallis would receive a writer's laudation.

The following chronological table was drawn up by Sir H.
Elliot, and has not been altered in any way. It differs in some
respects from the Table given by Mr. Thomas in his “Chronicles
of the Pathán Kings,” page 393.]

The chronology of this period is very difficult and various. I will
put down the dates—the most trustworthy are those of Abú-l Fazl.
The others each give only a few.